YouTube stands up to IOC over Free Tibet video

August 18, 2008

By Ian Lamont
Slashdot
August 16, 2008

The International Olympic Committee has withdrawn a DCMA takedown
notice that targeted a two-minute long YouTube video of a Students
for a Free Tibet protest at the Chinese consulate in New York. The
video shows protesters gathering outside the building at night and
projecting images of the Olympic symbol, 'tank man,' Tibetan riot
footage and clips of victims of the Chinese police crackdown in
Tibet. After receiving the request, YouTube contacted the IOC and
asked if it really planned to pursue a claim. The IOC retracted the
notice and the video was reposted within hours. Stanford Law School's
Center for Internet and Society praised YouTube for 'going out of its
way to do more than it's required to do under the law to protect free
expression.'

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has backed away from a DMCA
take-down request to remove a YouTube video of a Tibetan protest at
the Chinese consulate in New York.

The video in question (see below) was clearly not an example of
copyright infringement. YouTube and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) both pushed back against the IOC, which then
withdrew their complaint. As the EFF notes, however, the inaccurate
title of the video was "Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony," so in all
likelihood, the IOC was filing DMCA notices for Olympics content,
which has been springing up on YouTube faster than they can take it down.

Anthony Falzone, Executive Director of the Fair Use Project, was
impressed that YouTube went beyond the call of duty in pushing back
at the IOC. With the sheer volume of DMCA requests that YouTube must
be fielding with the Olympics, taking the time to double-check the
content is certainly impressive. At the same time, however, it
highlights how much work YouTube has to do in terms of policing
copyrighted content. The number of legal notices they have to respond
to consume time and resources that might be put to better use.